Method of producing silicon monoxid.



' UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HENRY NOEL POTTER, OF NEW ROCHELLE, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO GEO. WESTINGHOUSE,

- PITTSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA.

METHOD OF PRODUCING SIL ICON MONOXID.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 31, 1907.

Application filed June 10. 1905. Serial K0464553- of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Methods of Producing Silicon Monoxid, of which the following is a specification.

I have invented a novel method of making silicon monoxid. This method may be expressed It is noteworthy in view of the fact that here silica is reduced by silicon so that the whole reacting mass is converted into monoxid. There is no 00 gas liberated, which renders it possible to conduct this reaction moreeasily at very low gas pressures than other reactions where not only SiO, but also CO is a product.

The absence of carbon renders it impossible to produce SiC, which I have sometimes found in small quantities as an impurity in frequently made a mixture of granular silicon,

28 parts, and granular silica, 60 parts, and charged them about the resistor of a vacuum electric furnace such, for example as is described in my application No. 166,667 filed July 23, 1903 or 1n a vacuum electric furnace of the arc type. After pumping the air out of the furnace, the reaction is instituted and continued for a suitable length of time depending upon the style and size of furnace.

It is not necessary to have accurately the .correct reactive proportions of silicon and silica, as an excess of either ingredient can only either remain behind or be volatihzed and found as an impurity in the s1l1con monoxid. For-certain purposes it is desirable to avoid the presence of silicon dioxid in the roduct and in such cases I may use in the urnace a charge having a slight excess of silicon. Even large excess of either ingredient of. the charge will not prevent the product being mostly silicon monoxid, but

large excess is not desirable as the yield per kilowatt hour is reduced.

I claim as my invention 1. The method of producing silicon monoxid which consists in reducing silica by means of silicon.

2. The method of producing silicon monoxid by causing a reaction between silica and silicon.

3. The method of producing silicon monoxid by heating a mixture of granular silicon and granular silica.

4. The method of producingsilicon monoxid by heating a mixture of s1l1con and silicon dioxid under reduced pressure.

5. The method of producing silicon monoxid by promoting the reaction, silicon dioxid plus silicon 2 silicon monoxid, in an indifferent atmosphere, preferably under reduced pressure.

6. The method of noxid which consists 1n mixing granular silicon and crushed quartz and submitting said mixture to an intense heat.

roducing silicon mo- Si ned at New York, in the county of New York, and State of New York, this 7th day of June A. D. 1905.

HENRY NOEL POTTER.

Witnesses WM. H. OAPEL, GEORGE H. Srooxnnrnen. 

